Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Well I have not blogged in a while because I have been working on the same couple of projects and have nothing new to show. But then I thought progress is a good thing to show. So here goes! There is a quilt called The Godstone Grannies which Karen at Faeries and Fibres is busy recreating. I don't believe there is a pattern for this quilt. Search for it on Pinterest and the link will take you to a picture of it in a museum in England.

I truly fell in love with the colors the ladies used to make the quilt. I am normally not a brown, yellow and orange person but for some reason this quilt really spoke to me.

I love the designs within the diamonds.

Each diamond has 64 hexagons in it.

I am having so much fun recreating these.

Pulling fun fabrics! Some to fussy cut and some not.

A splash of green here and there. Paper Pieces.com generously allows one to print hexagon blanks so that you can draw in your own shapes. This is how I plan the diamond.

I am teaching a purse at my local quilt store and am making the center panel out of hexagons. Here it is so far. These are 1/2" hexies. The fabric is Moda Grunge.

I have also made a few more rosettes for my Soupçon quilt. I have been stitching like a woman possessed on all these hexagons and loving every minute of it. I hope you are loving your projects! Till next time, happy stitching.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

I have been stitching away this week like a fiend possessed and yet there is not terribly much to show for it. EPP means slow progress on a few projects. I am working on my Soupçon border and need to make 20 hexagon flowers for it. Remember my Soupçon from the last post?

Here are the flowers and the connecting hexagons which I am working on.

I was at Home Depot a few days ago and fell in love with these almost black pansies. They are so dark that they look black in the shade. Only when the sun shines on them can you see purple. They are truly WOW! They look like black velvet inside. The Stamens are small white dots in the center, deep down. So beautiful.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Yesterday was a rainy Sunday, so I decided to make a couple of zippered pouches. I used the tutorial so generously put up by Noodlehead! Open Wide Zippered Pouch appealed to me so much because you can see inside the pouch so very easily. I made one for myself and one for my daughter. This one is my daughters. I loved the fun print.

The inside fabric has clocks on it.

This one is mine, because I love cats.

Look at the fun mice on the inside.

The tab on the zipper has a mouse riding a bicycle. What a hoot. I could not resist fussy cutting the little critter.

Karen, over at faeries and fibres is starting another QAL. This one involves lots of hexies. I am so excited to start this next QAL because her designs are wonderful and her tutorials are just top drawer. So I needed to progress MAJORLY on my Soupçon. The pieced border was holding me up. I just had to make the time to gather the fabrics and cut them out. Once that was done, the borders go together really well. I am now working on the hexagons for the next border. Im feeling the pressure to get this done before her new QAL. Hop on over to Karen's blog - you won't be sorry you did.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

I am finished with the table runner and very happy with it. I bought binding for it yesterday and put it on this morning. Here is the surprise I was talking about. I thought the quilt could use something interesting added to it. So naturally I thought with all those eggs around, a couple of chicks would be in order. Isn't he a cute little fellow.

Here he is next to an egg.

This is a long table runner because my kitchen table is big. It is very cluttered at the moment so I lay the runner out on the sofa to get it all in the frame. Every alternate egg is upside down, so the other side of the table has some oriented the right way for them. I put three little chicks onto the runner.

I am not sure if this is at all clear to you but I quilted butterflies into the border quilting as I was meandering along.

I quilted a different design onto each strip of the eggs. Did you SPOT the binding? Tiny little pin dots from the Dottie collection. I think this is just a perfect print for a binding, especially with modern fabrics.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Spring is here! At last! It has inspired me to make a table runner for my kitchen table. I decided to come up with my own design. The egg is a symbol of new life and I wanted that to be part of the design element. I also knew that I wanted to use some strings from my scrap bag and make them colorful. I took a piece of computer paper, folded it in half and shaped an egg. Next I traced the egg onto a piece of Carol Doak's Foundation Paper.

I roughly cut the shapes out just outside the line to trim up later when the string piecing was done.

Off to the machine!!! Your first piece is right side up. Place your second piece right side down and sew a 1/4" along the straight edges. Remember to have the lines on your egg facing down so that you can see them when it comes time to trim up your egg.

I pieced a whole bunch of eggs at a time because you need to visit your iron to press the new strip open. I hate all the up and down and up and down when you just work on one.

Here you can see that the foundation piecing is done.

Next you will need to trim the egg shape by cutting it out on the line. Then gently tear away your foundation paper.

There you have a completed egg. So bright and cheerful. I used my egg template to cut out some wonder under to adhere the egg shape to the background block. Then I blanket stitched around the egg with my sewing machine.

I made seven eggs but decided that five would do the trick for the runner. I will probably use the two left over blocks for mug rugs. I used a grass green to sew some sashing between the blocks. I felt it needed something more so I will post about that tomorrow. I am currently quilting the project and am on the last piece of the border. Stay tuned for the big reveal.

Monday, April 7, 2014

It seems like I needed a quick fix finish! I had been trawling Pinterest and came across two really cute projects which I could work up quickly for Easter. This pattern for the cute chicken took about an hour to make. The instructions were great and can be found at crochetagain.wordpress.com. Look at O'Malley lounging on my ironing board in the background.

The second project are these darling crocheted Easter Eggs. The pattern is found on Petals to Picots blog. The instructions are very clear and they make up really quickly. While waiting for Nascar to start yesterday I made all of these. Well we did have to wait for a long time because of the rain. It never did start but I got all the eggs done for my cute little holder. I was going to paint eggs to go in here but when I saw this pattern I knew I had to try them out. Now I need to find some tiny eggs wrapped in foil to place in the bottom of the holder.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Since posting my scrap management series, I have felt like working on my tumbler quilt again since my bag of cut tumblers is quiet full. I looked at it and decided to add to the width. Also my tumbler quilt was started on my Singer (15K) hand crank sewing machine. So I got her out of her case and gave her a good oil. Here she is! The blue tape on the bed is for a 1/4" seam allowance. She is a beauty and works well - skips a stitch here and there but nothing to worry me. I string piece the tumblers on the Singer. I put the rows together on my Bernina.

Here is a pile of tumblers in front of the machine waiting to be string pieced.

I need to add rows of 18 tumblers to each existing row in the quilt to make the width as wide as I would like it. Here is a box with rows added.

I worked on adding the rows yesterday and am halfway done before I start adding full width rows. I just love how colorful this quilt is going to be.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

March was a good reading month for me. I used to question how one could claim to have read a book when you have actually listened to it. It seemed like a bit of a grey area to me. You will be pleased to know that I have recovered from my confused state and have taken out some audiobooks from my local library. Now I can "read" and sew at the same time. It is just possible that I have found Utopia!
A Holiday Yarn is a mystery novel. Sally Goldenbaum has several books in this series. I have read three of them and really do enjoy them.

The Funeral Dress was a good book. It is about an unwed mother in a very poor community who lives in dire circumstances and how the community rallies around her.

This was such a charming audiobook. A stern older librarian hosts a knit lit society where they read a book and knit a project which relates to the book. The characters are diverse and one gets involved with the goings on in their lives.

The Right Attitude to Rain is an Isabelle Dalhousie mystery (Sunday Philosophy Club). If you have not read any of Alexander McCall Smith's books, I highly recommend you try one. He is the author of the No1 Ladies Detective Agency and they are truly charming books. The Right Attitude to Rain is beautifully read and one is always left pondering philosophical ideas. Really good.
I also read "True Sisters" by Sandra Dallas but had returned it to the library before I got a picture of the book. It is the story of Mormons making the trek from Iowa to Utah with handcarts. A very good read. We have it so easy in comparison to what these people had to endure in the four month trip. They baked to death in the beginning and froze to death at the end. A story of endurance and the spirit to survive.

About Me

I have been married for 29 years to my wonderful husband. We have four children -3 sons and a daughter, as well as two wonderful daughters-in-law who are the center of our lives. We share our home with two cats. My passion in life is sewing. I was privileged to have two grandmothers who taught me how to knit and crochet at a tender age, instilling a deep love of crafting and being creative in me. I am a self-taught quilter and have been quilting for 14 years.